SCAD Road Trip Part 2!

In my last post I talked about the road trip down to Savannah Shelley and I took a couple weeks ago and some of the things we did while we were there.  So, our adventures continued when we took a drive out to Tybee Island one afternoon to check out the beach and dip our feet in southern water. (so much warmer than ct!) While we were there, we watched the fishermen at the end of the pier catch a couple stingrays before tossing them back in the water and on our way back we stopped by the lighthouse.  Amazingly enough, our first lighthouse of the trip!

Our last night in Savannah and we found someone willing to use their key to get us into the speakeasy!  And.....as luck would have it, they were doing a burlesque show that night!!! Sorry folks, this is the only photo I've got of the place.  If you can find it and convince someone with a key to take you, it's definitely an experience.  

Not to change the subject but....Did I mention I am absolutely in love with the live oak trees!!!??  Plenty of photo ops with the spanish moss at Wormsloe State Historic Site.  This is the last place we went in Savannah before starting our journey back north!  This may look familiar, a scene from Forest Gump was filmed here.  I didn't have to do any editing to these photos, this place is amazing!

but, it can't all be serious.....

(No moss was actually touched in the taking of these photos for fear of chiggers..... They're real)

How could I not be inspired........ These textures are absolutely going to appear in some of the work I'm planning next!

Next stop, the Old Sheldon Church ruins.  a little off the beaten path but completely worth it.  Peaceful and gorgeous, this was another favorite!  The contrast between man made and natural gets me every time!

Resurrection ferns, the name says it all.

Stopped in Charleston around lunch time, not at all what I expected!  What a beautiful little city!  Loved rainbow row and all of the old houses from the 1700-1800's.  

 So many adorable little side streets and alleyways.  It's worth it to take a slow stroll so you don't miss something amazing in one of the nooks and crannies.  The patina on the brick and the combination of old architecture and nature turned me into an obnoxious tourist with my camera.  Last installment will be in a few more days!  We're headed north and only a few more stops to go!

SCAD Road Trip Part 1

A couple weeks ago I hopped in the car with my friend and fellow artist/ teacher Shelley Osowiecki and we headed to Savannah, GA for an Educator Forum at the Savannah College of Art and Design.  We made a few stops along the way, did lots of sight seeing, learned some new techniques to use in our own artwork and in our teaching and generally had a blast!  I took about 300 photos, don't worry, I won't bore you with all of them but here are a few of the highlights......

Made it to the GW bridge in NY at dusk, beautiful time to see it!  We stopped for a little fun in DC the next morning.  We hit the Natural History Museum and the Hirshorn Museum of contemporary art.  Shelley was dying to have a butterfly land on her and this one was happy to oblige....

A quick stop at south of the border for a photo op with Pedro because Joe was convinced it was a cultural experience not to be missed, and then we were on our way to Savannah!  SCAD welcomed us with open arms and plenty of schwag!  It was like being a college student again, staying in the dorms for the week!

Shelley and I took different workshops and learned lots of new techniques to use in our own artwork and with our students.  I learned a little about 3D printing, how to use Cinema 4D and a Wanhao 3D printer along with some awesome printing techniques to use on ceramics.  I don't know why I didn't figure this out sooner!  Back to my printmaking roots I go!!!!  Very excited to try more of this now that I' home in my own studio! 

Love this old warehouse that SCAD turned into part of their campus.  One of my workshops was in this group of buildings.

And of course, there was plenty of site seeing..... We took a walking tour around savannah and got to see the oldest building there, lots of the squares filled with live oak trees (I'm a little obsessed with live oaks now) and monuments to all of the historical figures that had a hand in making Savannah what it is and learned a little about Savannah's history.  SCAD's welcome center and Poetter Gallery is on Bull Street with lovely views of one of the squares.  This photo with the church steeple is taken from one of the balconies there.

As strange as it sounds we had quite a few people recommend that we check out Bonaventure cemetery while we were there. I took a photography class in grad school and the professor had a rule....Absolutely NO photographs in cemeteries!  I don't know if even he would have been able to resist at Bonaventure. The combo of old, new and live oak trees with drippy spanish moss was too much to resist!  Side note... it was 100 degrees the day we were at Bonaventure with a heat index of 115 because of the humidity.  Thank god we were able to drive around and get out of the car only when we wanted to take pictures!

 Had to stop and visit little Gracie Watson.  We heard quite a few ghost stories while in Savannah and a couple of them were about her.

Might as well see what the nightlife is like, right?!  This is the view from the rooftop bar at the Bohemian, Rocks on the Roof.  Great place to have a drink and take in views of the bridge and the river.  One of many bars we visited during our stay, including a speakeasy. (Shhhh, I might share a photo of that one too.) 

That's all for now!  I'll post more in a couple days!

Anniversary Commission

 I love seeing the process of other artists and jewelers and I don't post much about my process because I tend to get so engrossed with what I'm doing that I don't stop to take pictures.  I did this time because it was a commission for a friend so I thought I'd share!  This was a special anniversary gift and he requested a set of either a necklace and earrings or a necklace and ring.  I was given some basic parameters, nantucket, the beach, baskets, a daisy and blue and green colors (along with a few others) to work with.  When I think color I go straight for stones and since the beach was on the list and I had these lovely paua shell stones in blue and green I went straight for those.  I did A LOT of sketching.  I only included a couple of the ones that led to the final design here because this post would be ridiculously long if I included every sketch.  I like making notes about my designs in my sketchbook as you can see.  So I experimented a bit with the idea of basket weave, waves, daisy petal shapes and I got a little crazy with wire designs. (photos not included)

At this point I was given some feedback to go with the daisy design, try to include the entire flower and get away from the blues and greens so, round 2 of sketches looked like this......

He decided to go with the necklace design in the bottom photo, bottom right as well as the single petal ring AND dangle earrings because he liked the designs of all of them and couldn't decide.  So, I got off to work......

 creating granulated daisy centers for the earrings and necklace. 

A stamped back with the words "HE LOVES ME!" and their anniversary date.  Ultimately this had a heart shape cut out in it as well.  The hole was functional but I always like to try to incorporate it into the design if I can.

I always try rings on while I'm working on them, even if they don't fit me well, just to check how they wear and look on.  I really like the concept behind this design, the single daisy petals acting as the symbol for the "he loves me, he loves me not" game.  Perfect for an anniversary.

And the final products...... A single petal ring with a few silver beads to tie it into the granulated detail of the earrings and necklace.